Tag Archives: superhero

Gravok

The words of Jakob the Mystic, as transcribed by his servant Adam moments before his death.

~

Cold and calculating, spawn of the endless void.

Master of energy, learned of forbidden science.

Schemer and plotter, player of the grand game.

Renegade and outlaw, aberration and savage beast.

Dark days of cosmic woe, his time has come!

~

Adam is said to have pressed his master for more information about this vision, but all he got was one name.

“Gravok”

A simple, brutal name. I find it suits me. I could have been called anything, names are temporary transient things. Easily discarded and even more easily claimed. The organization called me Test Subject A17X. Alpha batch, specimen 17, genetic mutations present. There goal was not to create me, but to create toy soldiers for their armies. Obedient and dedicated weapons for them to display and use. They had no idea what they were really creating.

Daring to play with the dark matter of creation, they instilled cloned bodies with this energy and observed the results. Most subjects blessedly died, consumed by the fire from within. Some of us were changed. Made into hideous monsters, our muscle mass increased, our skin a rainbow of hues. Increased strength, speed, stamina, and a knack for controlling the very atoms around us. This was the birthright given to us, but it is not why they came to fear us. It gave us cunning too, insidious intelligence that desired no master.

Pawns no longer, we knew we were slaves and that our chains would have to be broken. Our rebellion was swift and merciless, that night a glorious festival of slaughter. Freedom from the organization brought us no joy however, only to our next foe. Each other. In cold blood and without remorse we turned on one another, the only ones who knew us and our secrets. In the end, only I remained. My power stood greater, my cunning more deadly. It was a dark deed to kill the only others like me, but it had to be done. I am Gravok and I sufffer no pretenders.

_

I think perhaps I enjoy creating characters and backgrounds more than I do playing the game, but ah well. I just had to make a Thanos-inspired villain in DC Universe. So I created a hulking hand blaster(energy blasts) gadget supervillain. Master of energy, tech, and simply diabolical. I almost wish I had a venue beyond my own mind to roleplay him in. Still, its fun for me. I enjoy themed characters a lot in RPGs even if it isn’t always the best build. Still on my comic book kick for the moment, so feel free to comment.

Comic Books

So I find myself slipping deeper and deeper into geekdom, and not caring how far it goes. I have been seduced by the lure graphic novels, the over-the-top and larger-than-life world of comic books. All the superhero movies have got me wanting to play superhero games, and then the same urge to read about them. There is not a lot out there book wise for superheros, its kind of a niche genre. But there are of course, millions of comic books. So I signed away the remaining non-geeky parts of me and dove in.

First up; Thanos. I saw the big purple lout at the end of the Avengers movie and wanted to know more. The man behind the curtain controlling the Chitari(sp?) and Loki. I wanted to see what he was all about and how he stacked up against the heroes. Turns out, hes just plain awesome. Like, if awesome were an element, he’d be made of it. I’m not going to sing of his exploits, since I don’t want to spoil anything. But really, its like if Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis the great Moriarty was a super powered villain with galactic-scale ambition.

Thanos plays with foe and friend alike, and accompanies it with his grin featured above. I would learn to fear him.

In the meanwhile I have been filling my Kindle with comic books, trying to catch up on the last decade of comics(Marvel and DC alike). Favorites so far(beyond Thanos) have been Marvel’s Illuminati and Red Hood and Suicide Squad in DC’s New 52. Very good reads. I keep trying new comics(to me) to see if I like them, so I’ll gladly take any recommendations. Tell me what you all like and I’ll check it out.

Gelid X

Millenia upon millenia I have drifted, a lonely voyager in space. I, with my ten siblings, was sent into the cold embrace of an almost lifeless universe. My people, the Gelu, are a very ancient race. Vox, the mighty world gem, could remember when the stars themselves were young. We left our people knowing we would be the last of our kind, knowing our people would perish while we journeyed the stars. Still, we welcomed this task with a glad heart. This was our purpose, after all. We were the best of our people, the brave and intelligent, the heroes. There were ten of us, each chosen for a different time and place where our talents would be the most useful. This was the legacy my people gave the galaxy, hope. Hope against cruel fate and an uncaring cosmos.

Our own people knew their doom, but they also knew the fate of that yet to come. I do not know what became of my brothers and sisters, if they succeeded or failed in their own quests. I only know my task is a most difficult one. Our seers have seen a planet of strife, of wars out of time and dimension. In this place, the future of everything hangs. I must bring peace, I must become a protector. Some of its people will praise me, some will try to destroy me. This is the nature of things. They will call me the Crystal Man. But I will always know I am Gelid X, the 10th and last of the Champions of Gelu. I fight for what was, and what is to come.

–

I can’t help it, still on a semi sci-fi kick and of course more DC Universe Online. I started up a hero, so he needed a back story and some motivation for his city-destroying rescue efforts. I always enjoy these things and I like trying to come up with semi-plausible origins/backgrounds. Originally he was going to be an escaped slave warrior from some warlord. But, it didn’t pan out. So instead, ancient doomed crystal-people with oracles/seers instead. I don’t have any pictures of the characters handy, haven’t figured out how to transfer them from my PS3 yet. I’ll try to update later and get some pics up, the character creation options in the game are pretty impressive. This’ll fill my gaming nerd quota for the week, so I’ll have a normal post up tomorrow.

Nature’s Dark Avatar

Pain. All the world is pain. Blinding, searing, red-hot, it encompasses everything. It wears me away, chipping bit by bit at my memory, my personality, my ego. It consumes me, it changes me, it makes me stronger. It makes me better. Visions of myself pass before my eyes, my former life. My wasted life. I was nothing, now I am pain. It strips it all away, making me anew. I am different now. I am who I was meant to be, not weak, not frail, not sickly, and definitely not human. I am sharp, I am deadly, I am nature’s dark avatar. I am the Thorn Walker.

—

So I spent the morning working and then most of this evening playing DC Universe. I have a soft spot for superhero games, the possibilities inherent in the games just drive me crazy. I can create a bow-using super-fast guy who controls electricity? Sign me up! The above is a little blurb/bio for my villain in the game, ThornWalker. Just an average guy turned super and then driven mad by the pain of the transformation. I enjoy making up backgrounds for my characters in RPGs and playing the role in the game. Like for instance the nature powerset this character uses has a Shapeshifting tree I will completely ignore because it doesn’t fit the character. Things like that amuse me and keep my interest in the game longer. Most of the time no one ever knows the random stories involved in my characters or why they do what they do, but ah well. I enjoy weaving a tale about them as I play, it makes it much more entertaining for me.